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Dollyrots"August 1, 2008"

TT the Bears Cambridge, MA, USA

The Dollyrots blew through a fiery set at TT the Bears in Cambridge last Friday night, August 1st. Opening for The Dollyrots were local Boston indie rockers, Cheater Pint and the savage, bluesy, punk rock-n-roll quartet The Downbeat 5.

Interestingly enough Jen D'Angora, lead vocalist and guitarist for Downbeat was recently compared to Joan Jett by Fred Mills in Harp Magazine as "Jen D'Angora's cat scratch yelp and low slung fretwork that'd make Joan Jett turn green with envy." D'Angora -- with her sun streaked hair, wide open face, all California girl in a prim black and white backless sundress -- is nothing like Joan Jett, not in my opinion anyway. Janis Joplin came to my mind though, albeit a squeaky clean version. Joan Jett did produce The Dollyrots, so needless to say, this was quite an evening for music, unexpectedly so.

Being a warm summer night, I stepped out of the club for a moment. I noticed this girl with crimped blonde hair and an effervescent smile twirling down the sidewalk, a BlackHeart hoodie draped around her waist. The Dollyrots' bassist and vocalist Kelly Ogden was very sweet, very charming, bubbling over. "We have a new CD coming out," she said, and then, she twirled away leaving me kind of mystified, but happy I had made the trip to Cambridge.

When she and her band mates finally took the stage it was nearly a quarter to twelve. But the crowd just loved her as she ripped through "My Best Friends Hot," "Brand New Key," "Because I'm Awesome," "A Desperate SOS" and "Out of LA." Very interesting bass, excellent guitar riffs by Luis Cabezas, and solid percussion by Chris Black make this punk trio refreshingly pure power pop with clever lyrical melodies with excellent spacing and style. This band is a jewel, jubilant and definitely worth the wait.